Who decides what your club, organization, or division will work on next week? If you have a weekly meeting where someone in a leadership position makes those decisions, you might be leaving a lot of talent on the table.

At our Collegewise Austin meetup, Paul, Arun and I presented six broad subjects and asked the question, “How can we get even better at…”

1. …training and supporting our counselors?
2. …finding great families and delighting them in our program?
3. …using technology to make our lives easier and our counseling better?
4. …putting even more of the very best college admissions information on the web?
5. …growing our international business?

We didn’t suggest any answers.  Instead, the counselors each picked which of the areas was most interesting to them, then joined a team that spent an hour brainstorming new ideas. The Austin trip eventually ended, but the work those teams have been doing certainly has not.

They’re improving our in-house counselor mentoring programs. They’re creating a marketing calendar for our offices. They’re writing newsletters just for Collegewise parents. They’re rolling out an entirely new email and document storage system. They’re launching a new webinar series and a regular schedule of online office hours. They’re even planning an international roadshow.

In just a few short weeks, they’ve come together in their teams to make what will be some of the most significant improvements we’ve ever had at Collegewise. I cannot recall a time that we’ve been a more productive and collectively excited company. And it reminded me that sometimes the best thing the leaders in any organization can do is ask your members what they’d like to work on and then get out of the way.

There’s nothing wrong with prioritizing, or with leaders occasionally asking everyone to pitch in on one important project. But if you’re a leader and you make a habit of deciding what everyone else should be working on, maybe it’s time to stop leaving talent on the table? Instead, let the talent loose.